Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Consumer Reports was my first stop before purchasing this. They're a great first step before purchasing something you have no experience with. This is a CR top pick. Vacuum Wars is also a good resource. Probably stating the obvious, this is a great product in its swim lane but it won't replace a more capable vac with a larger ingress point, larger tank and more power. This is strictly a supplemental cleaning device for small, light and dry debris. That said, I’ve found that this has enough performance overlap with a larger and more powerful vac to significantly reduce the need for a larger vac. The motor is surprisingly powerful relative to the vac's size and more than up to the task of what this seems to be designed for. You'll get a confidence inspiring palm slap when testing it with your hand. I like that it can be staged just about anywhere without drawing attention to itself. It's a design I'd expect from a Scandinavian or German design studio. Sleek and sophisticated. It doesn't look like a science project or a Fisher Price child's toy as some hand vacs do. Ergonomically, it's nearly perfect. It's long enough to reach the floor without having to stoop as much as you would with many other handheld vacs. Very comfortable to use. It does well with refrigerator debris such as small onion skin remnants, packaging remnants, crumbs, coffee and pepper grounds, etc. It’s great for pet food crumbs and fur on hard floors, table and counter top debris and window sills. It’s also great for debris on and around stove tops. It did reasonably well on spider webs. Good live insect capture device too - confirmed once with a large slow moving gnat. It might be the ultimate stairs vacuum. Light, one hand to use, the other to brace yourself as you move up the stairs. No cord to trip on or hose to manage. Stowage of the two accessories is single file behind the vac. This keeps the front profile low, inconspicuous and space saving. Given the dock, it's always ready to go. No searching for an external battery or otherwise having to prepare for usage. Smart design. The passageway into the collection tank measures approximately 1/4" x 1". Although this seems large enough for a variety of debris, my experience is that it has trouble pulling in things larger and heavier than a pea. It does a decent job of picking up debris from car interiors but a more powerful hose vac and crevice tool will be required for detailing and to remove ground-in debris. I tried vacuuming small 13 mm steel screws I happened to spill but it wouldn’t pick them up. Not even one screw. Curious but I guess the screws are heavy relative to their size. Not enough surface area for the vac to catch them I suppose. Photoshop alert: The advertised picture of this pulling in a raging torrent of cereal from about 3 inches off of a counter top was almost certainly created in Shark’s art department. It’s more than up to the task of vacuuming the cereal but you’ll have to be closer. To be fair, vacs rapidly lose suction power with distance. Even an inch can mean dramatically reduced suction power. I'm not sure my 12 gallon, 5.5 horsepower shop vac would be able to do what the advertised picture shows. To remove hair and pet fur from cloth and carpets, a more powerful vac with a beater brush is a better choice. For quick touch ups however, this works well enough. Note that Shark sells a variety of WandVacs. One of the variants has a motorized (not suction powered) beater brush. If hair and pet fur removal from cloth and carpets is the priority, it might be a better choice. I read an Amazon review that said this was loud. Compared to other vacs I've used over the years, this seems to be quieter than all of them. I'm unfairly comparing this to larger vacs for the most part. Perhaps high-end vacs from companies such as Miele offer truly quiet vacs but I can't say from experience. Vacs are just loud. The only household vac I've used that was nearly silent was a whole-house model with the canister permanently mounted and isolated in the basement and a network of hose ports for an electric beater brush attachment installed around the house. Nitpick: The exhaust ports are side mounted and can stir up dust when working in tight spaces. A hose vac is a better choice for this type of cleaning. On the upside, this will reach into areas that many other hand vacs will not. Perhaps future revs of this vac will baffle or re-route the exhaust ports in such a way to mitigate this. Not an issue ~95% of the time. It should be docked at all times when not in use. Shark customer service says a charge is good for 9+ minutes. I haven't measured but experience with many other battery powered devices points in the direction of advertised info being somewhat optimistic or measured in a laboratory-like environment under ideal conditions with a new battery and new filter. Maybe not tested at all and calculated based on the motor’s power draw and battery specs. Probably best to assume that a charge is good for ~80-90% of advertised in real-world conditions. If the battery fails out of the warranty period, Shark sells replacements. There are also third-party options at less cost. The instructions say to turn it on immediately after purchase and let it run until the battery is depleted. After doing so, it should be docked until it is fully charged. I didn't find anything in the manual about having to condition the battery more than once after unpacking it. It probably wouldn't hurt to do so once in a while but maybe not necessary. Having to manually condition batteries is unusual these days. It used to be common for NiCD and NiMH batteries which had memory issues but not so much for modern Li batteries. A lot of modern Li batteries and the products they power have so-called smart chargers and/or software in the devices that controls how and when the devices are charged. They do this to maximize the run time and service life of the batteries. Apple products, Ego products, Teslas and so on. Unknown if this vac's dock/charger and/or the device itself has battery management capability. Update, 02/22/23: I initially stated that I wasn’t sure if the filter provided with the purchase of this vac is HEPA compliant. The Vacuum Wars site did a HEPA test on this model and it passed. Lacking info to the contrary, apparently this vac is indeed HEPA compliant. Very good to know especially for those that suffer from allergies. HEPA compliance means that it will filter 99.97% of debris down to 0.30 microns. For reference, a human hair is roughly 70.00 microns thick and there are 25,400.00 microns in an inch. Frequent cleaning will be required for optimal performance. The collection tank and small filter is the limiting factor. It would be advisable to empty it after every use. Doing so is quick and easy. Hold it over a trash can, release the access door and gently tap out the debris. Best to visually check the interior when doing this. Occasionally things like a small leaf or piece of plastic will hang and have to be pulled out. A more thorough cleaning will be necessary from time to time. Take it outside, remove the filter, blow or tap out the filter and done. Compressed air seems to do the best job with the filter and will also allow for cleaning of the interior of the tank and intake. The filters are re-usable and overall the vac is easily cleaned. Note that the filters aren’t ‘forever’ filters. There will come a point where they will no longer perform as effectively as new filters. Inexpensive replacements are available from Shark and third-party resellers. I read two reviews that said it stopped working shortly after turning it on. It's possible that this is battery related but more likely is that this has logic circuitry and/or a thermistor that will shut it down if it senses excessive heat and/or restricted air flow. Very little will kill a vac motor more quickly than blocking or restricting the airflow necessary for the motor to stay within the thermal limits of its design. I'll speculate that the end-users did not know how to remove and clean the filter. The filter mounts in a small housing which slides into a recessed area. Once installed, it's not obvious. To remove it, there's a slider on the bottom of the vac. Open the tank, use the slider to push the housing out, remove the housing and then remove the filter from the housing. Very useful product. Definitely recommended. In my experience, it's become one of those products that I wouldn't want to be without. Max convenience, time saving and high performing. Nice work Shark. Lastly, avoid the shameless mystery companies that were quick to copy the design and sell at less cost. Shark is a well established brand at this point and is backed by solid and responsive customer service.